An Unlikely Christmas
by ceru689
Summary: This is a short story about a woman in her mid-thirties reminiscing about a particular Christmas she and her sisters experienced one year. Enjoy!


**_An Unlikely Christmas_**

_**Summary: **_

This is a short story about Jane, a woman in her mid-thirties reminiscing about a childhood Christmas she and her sisters experienced one particular year. Enjoy!

A dull, rainy Saturday afternoon in mid-December found me in the middle of a crowded, (to put it mildly) shopping precinct. Today was the only time I could go shopping after working overtime at the office and tomorrow my mother insisted me and my sisters Louise and Helen over for Sunday dinner, Ben, Helen's husband and their six year old son Mike wouldn't be there as they were attending an all-boys football match at the local community centre. I was in the toyshop seeing what I could buy young Mike, and I was casually browsing at the children's toys, standing only a few feet away from me, a frazzled mother was trying to calm both of her overexcited young children, a girl who looked about ten, and a boy who looked slightly younger.

'I hope Santa brings me this,' said the girl, holding up what looked like an expensive-looking doll's house, before moving onto a doll, and all of the other accessories that came with it.

'I want this, plus all of the games,' the boy said looking at the latest computer games consul.

'You'll just have to wait and see what Santa brings you,' the mother replied in a slightly, off-hand way, whilst trying to maintain a calm exterior, then briefly looked at me shaking her head, mutely saying 'Kids,' before taking her children to another part of the shop. This wasn't the first time today I encountered hassled parents, particularly mothers and their lively offspring wanting the latest 'in' thing this Christmas.

I'd had enough of traipsing, around the shops, so it was settled I bought Mike a set three plastic dinosaurs, which needed batteries in order to 'roar,' I bought those too, making sure they were Duracell of course. After buying Mike's Christmas present I fought my way out of the crowded shop and busy precinct and crossed the road to my favourite coffee shop where I was lucky enough to find a seat and a table all for myself. I sat down and treated myself to a large cappuccino and slice of chocolate cake. Seeing how stressed out those parents were made me feel glad I didn't have children of my own. Nevertheless at this time of year I always think of one childhood Christmas that stands out from all the rest.

'Goodnight, you three get a good night's sleep,' Mum and Dad cheerfully called out to the three of us as we headed off to bed earlier than usual on that Christmas eve twenty years ago, neither of us could sleep with the anticipation of what the following day held, which at fourteen seemed ridiculous. Christmas morning I woke up at around quarter past eight, bounded from bed and threw open the curtains, to be greeted by a frosty, but sunny morning with blue skies. I ran from my room and banged on the door to Helen and Louise's room calling out: 'Merry Christmas!' The three of us raced downstairs in the hope of being first to tear off the wrapping paper of the presents that would be sitting under the tree.

'Merry Christmas girls,' said Dad.

'Merry Christmas Dad,' I replied, as did Helen and Louise, all of us giving Dad a quick hug and kiss.

'The presents are not there,' said Louise pointing to the tree.

'What d' you mean not there?' I asked, thinking Louise was playing a trick on us.

'Look Jane.'

'Mum's probably playing a trick on us and hidden them,' Helen piped up. 'Let's look for them.'

The three of us searched all over the house for the 'hidden' presents, we looked in the living room cabinet, under the table in the dining room, we looked in our wardrobes thinking our parents must have sneaked into our rooms during the night and hidden them there, we even searched Mum and Dad's neatly, organised bedroom too, and we couldn't find them.

'Mum, what's going on, where are our presents?' I demanded when the three of us marched into the kitchen where Mum was busy preparing the Christmas dinner.

'I told you over a fortnight ago there wouldn't be any presents this Christmas, and if neither of you were paying attention or had forgotten - then that's your tough luck,' she replied.

'You mean you got us nothing?' asked Helen, sounding horrified.

'You have a house that I clean, plenty to eat - look,' she said opening the doors to the fridge and cupboards, all of which were well stocked. 'And you have a turkey that I've been up, preparing since seven this morning - I wouldn't call that nothing. There are people here in Britain, never mind the rest of the world who are sleeping on the streets and don't have anyone who loves them,' Mum concluded in a firm, but calm tone of voice, before ordering us to get changed out of our nightclothes and have breakfast, whereas she was already dressed, with her hair combed and make-up on. The three of us became very upset to the point we started crying and one of us even threatened to call ChildLine.

'God knows what they're going to say when they find out at school - we'll be the laughing stock of the whole school,' Helen wailed.

'Your schoolmates are not going to say anything - unless you tell them,'

'It's so unfair!' were the moans of Louise.

'You can cry all you want it's not going to change things, you'll only make things worse and if you carry on like that you can stay in your rooms all day for me, I'm not having my day or your dad's day ruined by your childish tantrums,' Mum shouted to us as we hurried upstairs, still crying and shut ourselves in our rooms.

Still in my nightdress I sat on my unmade bed, though the rest of my bedroom was reasonably tidy, something Mum expected from all of us, and thought back to when Mum told us all she wouldn't be buying presents this year due to financial reasons, then it slowly came back to me. It was two-and-a-half weeks ago, Sunday December 8th, 1991 at around 2.00 pm to be exact. At fourteen I was the eldest, Helen was twelve and Louise was ten and a half. The three of us helped Mum with the washing-up after she had cooked us all dinner. Dad was feeling tired so he went to lie down, though he had been feeling better than of late, Me, Helen and Mum were in the cosy, sitting room, which we'd decked out with Christmas decorations that weekend, along with the Christmas tree, which stood 6' tall and was covered in coloured fairy lights that were switched on, even though it was still light outside. Mum had set up the ironing board, I was checking through my homework, Helen had collared my 'Smash Hits' magazine, whilst watching the 'EastEnders' omnibus on TV, whereas Louise was outside playing with her friends.

'As you know your father hasn't been well, and his business hasn't been making much in the way of money, not to mention all the bills we've had to pay, well you might as well know neither of us can afford to buy you three any presents this year, hopefully it'll just for this year, until things get sorted out - I'm telling you now, to avoid disappointment later.

'Yeah, whatever,' I replied only half-listening to what she'd just said. Helen didn't reply, I doubt she was even listening. Of course all that was going through my mind was the trendy new coat I'd seen in Top Shop, perfume, make-up and other toiletries that were on display in Boots, plus other stuff, even the CD player the same as my friend had, that I'd been hinting for since September, to which Mum replied: 'We'll see.' Words that me and my sisters always took as meaning 'yes.' I reckon no sooner had Mum made her little announcement it was forgotten by me, though I'm not sure whether she told Louise her news, or expected us to.

I switched on the clock radio, which was playing Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody,' and thought about what Mum had said to us downstairs, and after looking around my bedroom, which had been tastefully decorated by my parents for my birthday in June this year, the walls were painted magnolia, though one wall was papered purple with gold swirls, and the bedspread and curtains were matching purple too, and realised she was right, we did have everything, we never went without. Previous Christmases Mum and Dad went out of their way to get us whatever we wanted, regardless of whether or not they could afford it. However this year money must have been more 'tight' than usual. Of course we all knew that Dad ran his own successful accountancy business, and Mum helped him, but we weren't to find out until later that a lot of people had let him down by not paying their fees. The reason for this was they had their own 'money' problems due to the recession which lasted for most of the early 1990's. Back then I didn't know or understand what a recession was or any other economic problems the UK faced. That added to the fact our Dad had a severe flu, which lasted nearly two weeks, meaning that he couldn't cope with his workload. Plus there were all the bills that came at once.

It was decided. After I showered, dressed and made my bed, whilst Wizzard's 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday' played, and pulled out a sheet of 'A 3' sized card, from my folder and tapped on Helen and Louise's door.

'Are you both okay?' I asked softly as I carefully opened the door and poked my head inside. They both nodded, though they were still wearing their pyjamas.

'Get yourself dressed, I need your help,' I said cheerfully as I stepped inside their bedroom, which had been decorated not long before mine had, though theirs had been painted a pastel pink colour.

'What d' you want us to do Jane?' asked Louise.

'Get dressed and you'll find out.'

'I don't feel like getting dressed, in fact I don't feel like doing anything,' replied Helen.

'You will, trust me, now come on, chop! Chop!'

With that Helen and Louise slowly left their beds and dressed themselves, each taking turns to use the bathroom.

'Right I know you're both upset because Mum and Dad haven't bought us any presents this year,' I said.

'That's an understatement,' Helen retorted.

'Don't you both realise Mum and Dad have made a lot of sacrifices for us? I never thought about it just now, but we should be grateful for what they've done for us, instead of complaining about what we don't have.'

They both nodded, however Louise was about to say something, but I silenced her by placing my finger over her mouth. Then produced the big sheet of card that was just outside the door.

'Dig out your glitter, glue and anything else sparkly, we're going to make something for Mum and Dad.'

Helen and Louise smiled and nodded then rooted around in their cupboard for 'sparkly stuff' and glue. All three of us got to work on a Christmas collage, which we used silver holographic paper, cut into the shape of stars, green glitter for a tree and red, yellow, blue, pink and purple represented the lights on the tree. We used silver glitter to make snowmen, using black glitter for buttons and a hat, red and green glitter was used for holly and berries. Whilst we waited for the glitter and glue to set, we had just as much fun working on two other festive scenes, using the same type of card. When we were finished we carefully carried our works of art into the kitchen where Mum had the oven door open and was basting the turkey. I made a slight noise, which caught Mum's attention.

'I hope that you're all in a better mood, seeing as you've come downstairs,' Mum said coolly to the three of us.

'Mum we want to apologise for what happened earlier.'

'Oh,' she said sounding surprised. 'What have you got behind your backs?'

Helen, Louise and I slowly produced from behind us our Christmas collages, each depicting a festive scene, and the bottom read the words: 'Merry Christmas Mum and Dad, lots of love from Jane, Helen and Louise,' followed by three kisses.

'Did you make those all by yourselves?'

We nodded.

'When?'

'We've just literally finished making them,' I replied.

'Oh what a lovely thing to do,' Mum said hugging us all. 'Pete, come and see what you're daughters have been doing.'

'What it is it Marianne?' asked Dad when he entered the kitchen and Mum showed him our Christmas collages.

'Well done,' he beamed at us.

'I wish I had frame, but this'll do for the time being' Mum said as she carefully covered our collages with cling film to keep everything in place.

'Listen, my mate Tony owes me a favour, for helping with his accounts - I'll ask him to laminate them.'

'Great,' we all more or less said. Dad took our collages into the living room where he pinned them to the wall, they took pride of place in the sitting room. Soon afterwards we ate a Mum's delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings, followed by Christmas, fruit pudding served with hot, white sauce, which had a hint of brandy. Mum even allowed us to have a small glass of sparking, white wine each, which tasted like lemonade. We pulled crackers, donned the party hats and laughed at the awful jokes that fell out. When dinner was over and all the dishes were done and put away Helen, Louise and I brought out a set of board games that had't seen the light of day in God knows when, but the were still in good condition with none of the pieces missing. All of us, including our parents played those games, one being Pictionary, which was given to us last Christmas but was sealed with the clear, plastic packing. We also played charades any other game we made up. We must have played for hours on end, whereas normally by this time me and my sisters would be bored with our latest Christmas presents and be sat slumped in front of the TV with our parents. Just after seven that evening Mum's younger sister Kathy and her husband Rob called around with a bottle of sherry, (which only Mum and Dad would be allowed to drink!) and a big, jar of assorted chocolates for us all to share, whereas they would buy each of us a gift, but because of Mum and Dad's financial situation Mum told Kathy and Rob not to buy any presents for us, as she couldn't afford to buy any for them as well as us. Kathy and Rob stayed until about quarter past ten.

After they left the five of us turned off the ceiling lights, so we could enjoy the lights from the tree, and gathered around the TV to watch our favourite comedy 'Only Fools and Horses,' showing the second part of 'Miami Twice,' which Dad taped. Five minutes into it starting Mum got up and left the room, and came back in with three packages, wrapped in fancy, gold and red Christmas paper.

'I was going to give you these earlier on, but after everything that's been going on today I completely forgot,' Mum said handing us the packages, which we opened to reveal a scarf, hat and glove set, with an intricate pattern hand knitted by Mum, my set was deep purple, Helen's was royal blue, and Louise's was shocking pink. We thanked Mum for our gift and tried on our scarf, glove and hat set.

Louise and I were allowed to stay up late that Christmas night, going to bed at around one in the morning. Not long after we were in bed Mum and Dad turned in. I was still awake long after everyone else was sleeping peacefully, as I was reflecting on the day, which got off to a miserable start, and would have no doubt continued that way, had I not taken matters into my own hands. Instead that Christmas turned out to be the best one our family had ever had, even without presents. The following Christmas things were better for us financially the recession was easing and Dad's business was flourishing again, Mum asked us what we wanted, though she did stress her and Dad weren't going to 'spend a fortune,' to which my sisters and I replied, for Christmas to be the same as last year.

After finishing my cappuccino and chocolate cake, I stood up, put on that same hat and scarf (I'd outworn the gloves by now) that Mum knitted me all those years ago, paid the bill and opened the door, and stepped outside to see that the rain had eased off, and clouds were moving to reveal blue skies and sunshine and watched hassled parents running from one shop to another, unsurprisingly getting into debt just to purchase overpriced toys for their children, which would no doubt lose their appeal or end up broken and be tossed aside before the TV was turned on for the Queen's Christmas day speech. Of course it would be interesting to see how would those children would react if their mothers did the same thing my mother did that Christmas.


End file.
